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About Us

A Registered Investment Advisory Firm

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Washington, D.C. has the mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation. The laws and rules that govern the securities industry in the United States derive from a simple and straightforward concept: all investors, whether large institutions or private individuals, should have access to certain basic facts about an investment prior to buying it, and so long as they hold it. As such, any person or company who provides investment advice to the public and are compensated for that advice are required to register with the SEC as an investment advisor. The SEC was created by the Securities Act of 1933 and it regulates investment advisors as defined by the Investment Advisors Act of 1940.

Barry M. Corkern & Co., Inc. is a registered investment advisor with the SEC. For more than 30 years, Barry M. Corkern, CFP®, AIFA® has guided individuals, multiple generations of the same family, business owners, endowments, foundations and retirement plans to make profound impact on their financial decisions and planning. With longer experience in fee-based wealth management than any other Arkansas wealth manager, Barry provides expert, timely and strategic information to a select group of clients with complex financial needs. His clients reside in Arkansas and six other states.

Barry has provided case preparation and testified in more than 70 cases in arbitration, federal, state and circuit court as an expert on various cases which involve Inappropriate and unsuitable investment transactions and sales. His Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst® certification authorizes him perform fiduciary audits for private trusts, qualified plans, endowments and foundations. His firm is CEFEX certified which assures adherence to the best fiduciary practice standards. He has been designated as one of the best financial planners in the United States by Money Magazine and Bloomberg Wealth Manager Magazine.

Meet Our Staff

Barry M. Corkern

Barry is the founding president of the Arkansas Chapter of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), past chair of that organization and received the FPA Lifetime Achievement Award for 2004. He previously hosted a radio program on financial planning and today his television segment on wealth management appears monthly on THV11, the local CBS affiliate.

He received his Certified Financial Planner designation in 1983, marking him as a member of a distinguished profession dedicated to serving the financial needs of individuals and businesses. The designation of CFP® is obtained by passing six examinations in various disciplines of financial planning. These disciplines include investment, tax, estate, risk management, and retirement planning.

Barry earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Auditor™ designation in 2003 from the Center for Fiduciary Studies, a nationally recognized training organization for fiduciaries at the Katz Graduate School of Business in University of Pittsburgh. In 2005, Barry completed the Private Wealth Management Professional Track at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Barry is a co-author of Widowed – Beginning Again Personally & Financially, published in 1999. Profits from the sale of this book are donated to nonprofit organizations that assist widows.

When not working, Barry enjoys time with his family. He and Jan enjoy working on church projects, and attending football games for their son, Lawson. His daughter, Lauren married Zach in May, 2017. His favorite times are when the whole family gathers for any reason at all!

LaQuita S. Neal

LaQuita Neal serves as Portfolio Assistant and provides client financial services assistance. She has been with the firm since 2004. She is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in psychology. For 18 years, she has been a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She has served in the financial industry since 1994.

She is the proud mother of two wonderful girls.

Janice M. Corkern

Janice Corkern, Chief Financial Officer, received her BSBA in Financial Management from the University of Arkansas. Employed with Barry M. Corkern & Co., Inc. since 1987, her roles and responsibilities have encompassed most of the company’s activities. She has previously held the following licenses: Series 7 (General Securities), 63 (AR Securities), 65 (Registered Investment Advisor) and is a QuickBooks Proadvisor. Jan currently manages all the firm’s finances, cash management and financial reporting.

You may bump into Jan occasionally at the home office, but many days she is working remotely from home or at another office doing independent contractor work in some capacity. She simply loves numbers and is hired to look for fraud, set up books for new businesses, reorganize or clean up accounting nightmares, assist with litigation cases and trust accounting.

When not in front of a computer, you can probably find Jan spending time with her family and their dog or outside with friends going on a run; her favorite ways to fill her days. Barry and Jan have been married since 1996 and are delighted to be the parents of Lawson, Lauren and her husband Zach.

Lauren Carpenter

Lauren Carpenter joined the team in 2017 as administrative assistant. She delights in assisting Barry and the team so they are properly equipped to assist others in meeting their financial goals. She previously worked as a financial advisor, having held both the Series 7 (General Securities) and Series 66 (Uniformed Combined State Law) licenses. Lauren was recently awarded a scholarship from the College for Financial Planning to pursue the Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional designation. Lauren holds a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Arizona in Tucson. When not at work, she loves to read about the early church, work in her garden and spend time with her husband and their four children.